X-Men: First Class. It is a stylish, witty and exceedingly entertaining movie that works from beginning to end. Is the villain's plot a little asinine and is it overstuffed with background characters that don't really do anything? Yes, but the first is something I could accuse most MCU of and the latter is simply a facet of the X-Men universe as a whole.

Still, the elements that work--Xavier and Magneto's friendship, Xavier and Mystique's sibling relationship, the '60s style, Taggort, the Cuban Missile Crisis backdrop, the ending, the Logan cameo, etc.--is right on the money every time. I feel like the casting is top notch (other than January Jones) and the movie proves that Matthew Vaughn is consistently one of the most underrated "blockbuster" directors working. I'd much rather they had given him Star Wars over JJ Abrams, but c'est la vie.

Captain America to me is a bland movie with a fun pulpy heart...for the first 60 minutes. I like Evans in the role and the rest of the cast is fine, but around the 60 minute mark (when Cap gets his official costume after rescuing Bucky and Co. from Hydra), it goes downhill real fast. It quits being a film about the origin of Captain America and instead becomes about Captain America Joins The Avengers. Honestly, the movie would have worked better if it stayed all in WWII, but the Marvel marketing strategy of having them all team-up certainly hurt this film, as the plot literally stops halfway through to turn it into a commercial for the next movie. And Red Skull sucked. Plus, let's not get into its refusal to make Nazis the bad guys or pretending the U.S. military was intergrated during WWII.

So, First Class by a country mile.

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"Let us disappoint the Men who are raising themselves upon the ruin of this Country."

I disagree with you on Captain America, the movie was entirely in WW2 with the exception of the last five minutes. You can't say the whole second half was just a commercial for The Avengers, Cap fought his enemy and resolved his first story, and at the end they -teased- the Avengers.

I think First Class was the best X movie since X-Men United, but I haven't yet watched it again. I have the Blu-Ray so I probably should, I recall it made a few of the mistakes X3 did with unnecessary characters, I loved the ending but was disappointed in how they went about a few minor details. The disregard for continuity was a let down as well considering the opportunities available, but I enjoyed the original story the set out to tell. I'll have to pop it in to be sure, but at this point I would give it Captain America.

Also, to those saying Cap was an Avengers commercial, he was in the modern era a whole 5 mins in the movie...that was over 2 hours. I think it is an invalid complaint. The film was strictly about Steve Rogers, the hero who becomes Captain America, who eventually sacrifices himself to save a lot of people. This wasn't like IM2, which had several distractions and stunted the plot of the film. Cap's plot kept moving, and it kept the development of Rogers at the heart of the film. I can't disagree with this more.

I really didn't like how we went from Hydra being at the height of its power to being reduced to their final stronghold over the course of a two minute montage.

To keep with the World War II theme, that would be like a film depicting Operation Torch at the end of the second act and then five minutes later the Allies are surrounding Berlin.

I didn't have issue with it myself. the film wasn't a war film. It was an adventure film, and the film had years of Cap's life to cover in around 2 hours. They were never going to highlight every pin point of the fight against Hydra, and I actually thought the movie was paced well (especially considering the type of film it was trying to be). The montage was to say "This is what Cap was doing all these years" as opposed to saying "here is the genius plan in defeating Hydra."

I disagree with you on Captain America, the movie was entirely in WW2 with the exception of the last five minutes. You can't say the whole second half was just a commercial for The Avengers, Cap fought his enemy and resolved his first story, and at the end they -teased- the Avengers.

I think First Class was the best X movie since X-Men United, but I haven't yet watched it again. I have the Blu-Ray so I probably should, I recall it made a few of the mistakes X3 did with unnecessary characters, I loved the ending but was disappointed in how they went about a few minor details. The disregard for continuity was a let down as well considering the opportunities available, but I enjoyed the original story the set out to tell. I'll have to pop it in to be sure, but at this point I would give it Captain America.

I stand firmly by it being an Avengers commercial, because they threw the entire plot out of the movie at the 1-hour mark as it became a rush to the finish line to make sure that Cap was lined up for Avengers. The film literally went from "We will meet again one day Mr. Rogers," with Red Skull type villainy to "We have now almost defeated Hydra!" in the span of five minutes. The only mission glimpsed in those five minutes was the death of Bucky, which again felt rushed and half-assed simply to better set-up Captain America 2 down the road.

I'll put it another way: Cap's entire mythic legend of being the symbol for the Allies happens OFF-SCREEN. He goes from Zero to Hero just like that (pardon the Disney pun). Honestly, it should have been two films. So much was gloosed over or skipped to line up with the Avengers that the naturally building plot stops dead for a "Best of" compilation. It is lazy and poorly told.

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Originally Posted by Matt

Kinda like comparing apples to oranges, isn't it?

Is it really? They're both superhero movies that came out in 2011 and were rated PG-13 meant for mass market appeal set in period piece eras. It is more like comparing a Granny Apple to a Macintosh. It sticks.

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"Let us disappoint the Men who are raising themselves upon the ruin of this Country."

I was just about to say it would have worked better as two films, but DACrowe beat me to it.

A whole series of 40s based Cap films could easily be done, but realistically speaking, we were only getting the one. Condensing Cap's history in 1 film isn't an easy task and I think Cap's film easily presented the most problems in terms of getting from point A to point B. Heck, we only got Iron Man 2 because Marvel needed to raise more money for Avengers (prior to the Disney sale) and Iron Man 2 was easily their safest bet for moneymaker at the time.

Xavier's accident wasn't rushed. It was the proper result of what Magneto's actions. I thought it was handled quite well.

I disagree. The rift between Erik and Xavier was occurring regardless of the paralysis, and the incident caused yet another continuity error. Mystique also acted completely out of character by abandoning her wounded brother on the beach. I would liked to have seen Xavier get hurt under more heroic circumstances after spending more time with the First Class, but hopefully Singer makes it all worthwhile next year.

Seconded. I thought it was handled a little quick, and I remember Magneto having some shocked "Oh whoops sorry Charles!" reaction that was disappointing. I was hoping for something deliberate like the way it was portrayed in Ultimate X-Men.

I stand firmly by it being an Avengers commercial, because they threw the entire plot out of the movie at the 1-hour mark as it became a rush to the finish line to make sure that Cap was lined up for Avengers. The film literally went from "We will meet again one day Mr. Rogers," with Red Skull type villainy to "We have now almost defeated Hydra!" in the span of five minutes. The only mission glimpsed in those five minutes was the death of Bucky, which again felt rushed and half-assed simply to better set-up Captain America 2 down the road.

I'll put it another way: Cap's entire mythic legend of being the symbol for the Allies happens OFF-SCREEN. He goes from Zero to Hero just like that (pardon the Disney pun). Honestly, it should have been two films. So much was gloosed over or skipped to line up with the Avengers that the naturally building plot stops dead for a "Best of" compilation. It is lazy and poorly told.

I like the movie, but agree. i never thought about it before but it does go from becoming Cap to a montage to his last mission.

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Originally Posted by Zarex

Marvel had to get Cap into the present. FOX had to get Xavier into a wheelchair. Both events were rushed, but Marvel had a much better reason for doing so.

Disagreed, Xavier didn't have to become paralysised in FC. Cap did have to get frozen and thawed for Avengers.

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Originally Posted by Zarex

I disagree. The rift between Erik and Xavier was occurring regardless of the paralysis, and the incident caused yet another continuity error. Mystique also acted completely out of character by abandoning her wounded brother on the beach. I would liked to have seen Xavier get hurt under more heroic circumstances after spending more time with the First Class, but hopefully Singer makes it all worthwhile next year.

Yes and No. it was careless of her given Xaviers condition, but her decision to join Erik played out fver the entire movie with how Xavier didn't allow her to embrace her true self whereas erik did.

Actually, Xavier's paralysis IS NOT a continuity error YET. There is still a nearly 50 year gap between FC and X1, so they could easily explain that away. Xavier has regained the ability to walk and then been paralyzed again several times in the comics. It's the same for people who argue that Mystique poisoning Xavier contradicts her sister-like relationship with him in FC. Something may very well have happened in the FIFTY years between FC and the OT to turn her against Xavier.

Also, she didn't just callously abandon Xavier. She wasn't going to leave. Xavier told her to leave with Erik because he knew it was what she really wanted.

Raven leaving Xavier made complete sense - if her brother wasn't gravely injured. There is nothing a sibling could tell me that would cause me to abandon them in their time of need. That's why, to me, the magic bullet was completely unnecessary and seemed to be driven as much by commerce as Cap's hibernation. Marvel wanted Cap in the present, FOX wanted Xavier in his familiar chair.